Wednesday, February 23, 2011

On January 13, according to a New York Timesarticle, Renault filed a criminal compaint with the Office of the Public Prosecutor in Paris, alleging that a foreign company tried to obtain secrets relating to Renault's electric-car program. Renault previously had suspended three of its executives, whom it suspected of seeking to pass on data relating to the electric-car program, and reportedly had scheduled disciplinary hearings on January 11. After a French Member of Parliament publicly intimated "that a Chinese intermediary had sought to obtain secrets from the three Renault executives," a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman responded with a statement that such charges were "totally baseless and irresponsible."